Is India becoming a bitcoin convert?

There are many governments that have been resistant to Bitcoin and deemed it illegal but are currently changing their attitude with time. The main reason for this is because Bitcoin has been long been associated with money laundering.
According to CNBC India however, the Indian government has considered accepting the currency officially in India by regulating it. The ministry of finance in India has an interdisciplinary committee that has been working on investigating the legal status of Bitcoin and the possibility of it regulating the market.

What contributed to making Bitcoin legal?

There are three major Bitcoin exchanges such as Zebpay, Coinsecure and Unocoin that have worked with self-regulated trading platforms with integrated know your customer and anti-money laundering systems to try making it possible to use the currency in the country.
The efforts of the Indian Bitcoin exchanges to self-regulate the market despite lack of regulations in the digital currency industry is what made the Indian government to reconsider legally accepting the currency even though there were critics from politicians who don’t have a deeper knowledge on the cryptocurrency for example there is a member of parliament Kirit Somaiya who regarded the currency as a Ponzi scheme. He was however criticized for lack of understanding of the cryptocurrency.

Is Bitcoin now legal in India?

Despite the many criticisms that the Indian government faced in accepting Bitcoin, it still finally accepted the currency. The government decided to regulate the market and give a consideration to Bitcoin exchanges that have shown commitment to standardize the industry and have a significant amount of resources. According to the CEO of Coinsecure, one of the largest Bitcoin exchanges in India, the government has finally decided to give a consideration to the currency and the possibility of regulating the market. He reported to already seeing a massive increase in the number of users and trading volumes.
On June 20, 2017, CNBC India reported that the government of India committee made a ruling in favor of Bitcoin regulation and aims to legalize Bitcoin at least in the short term. According to Chris Burniske of ARK Invests crypto lead, the trading volumes have steadily been on increase and the Indian Bitcoin exchange alone is responsible for 11 percent of all Bitcoin to USD trades.

The fact that India has legally accepted the currency is going to be a game changer of the Bitcoin industry. The move by the Indian government to closely regulate the Indian Rupee in 2016 will make even more users to switch to Bitcoin. This means that there will be even more trade of the currency and more merchants accepting the currency. Clearly crypto currencies are going to revolutionize the financial market. There are high chances that there will be even more countries that will accept the currency. As much as Bitcoin has been used for money laundering and other illegal activities, Governments will find a way of regulating that in future. There is chance that governments will come up with a way of imposing tax on the currency.

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